Her husband had threatened to kill her, so when Panhia Yang returned to their St. Paul apartment to gather her belongings after she left him and years of abuse, she called to ask for a police escort, her family said.

Officers, busy on emergency calls, didn't immediately arrive.

Panhia Yang, 27, then talked to her husband, Chue Lor, on the phone. Her family thinks he convinced her it was safe to come in their apartment and she didn't wait for police.

Panhia Yang's 18-year-old brother Kong Meng Lee had come along to protect her, and their family believes that's what he died doing.

Police got a 911 call about the killings just over an hour after Panhia Yang first called a non-emergency police dispatch number to ask for an escort.

Chue Lor and his wife, Panhia Yang. (Courtesy photo)

Police suspect Chue Lor, 31, killed his wife and her brother, according to information released Tuesday, March 26. The siblings died of injuries caused by a sharp object, the Ramsey County medical examiner's office ruled.

Officers also found Chue Lor dead in the couple's apartment building in the 500 block of North Victoria Street. The cause and manner of his death has not yet been determined, pending toxicology tests, police said, but they are not looking for suspects in the case.

The couple's four children, ages 3 to 9, were in the apartment at the time of the killings and are being cared for by Chue Lor's family.

The 9-year-old saw his father stab Kong Meng Lee, the boy later told Panhia Yang's 7-year-old brother, who had waited in the car while Panhia Yang and Kong Meng Lee went in the apartment, according to their relatives.

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The victims' brother saw blood on the boy's feet and hands, they said.

Panhia Yang told her sister, Mai Kia Yang, that Chue Lor had been controlling and accused her of cheating, though she assured him she had not. He'd recently thrown her to the ground and onto a couch, stomped her neck with his foot and punched her in the face, Panhia Yang told her sister. Chue Lor had sharpened a knife and said to his wife, "If you dare to do anything that I don't like, I have a knife here," Mai Kia Yang said.

YEARS OF ABUSE

Panhia Yang, the oldest of seven siblings, recently contacted Mai Kia Yang and asked for help. She needed a place to stay, but couldn't go to her parents' Minneapolis home.

When Panhia Yang left her husband for the first time last year and stayed with her parents, Chue Lor threatened her when she returned home -- "If she ever runs here again, he will come and kill her, and her mom and dad," Soua Vang Lee, Panhia Yang's mother, recounted his threats.

Mai Kia Yang told her sister to stay with her because she'd recently moved and Chue Lor didn't know where she lived. Panhia Yang went to her sister's Wednesday, and they told people she'd gone to a women's shelter to cover her trail and ensure her safety.

There had been past threats with knives, Soua Vang Lee said.

The couple had started dating when Panhia Yang was 13 and had a Hmong traditional wedding when she was 14, though they weren't legally married, according to her family.

After they were married, Panhia Yang told her mother that Chue Lor had been beating her and pointed a knife into her chest.

Later, Soua Vang Lee said she witnessed Chue Lor pulling her daughter by her hair, up the stairs, at her house. Panhia Yang ran away and locked herself in a bathroom, while Chue Lor got a knife. He pounded the door and stabbed it with the knife. "His knife mark is still up on the door upstairs," she said Tuesday.

Other relatives said they knew something about Chue Lor abusing Panhia Yang, but not more of the story until after her death.

Kong Meng Lee (Courtesy photo)

Court records show driving offenses for Chue Lor, and not domestic discord. His family could not be reached for comment.

Panhia Yang's family said they don't think she filed reports with police because she was afraid.

"I think he kind of used the abuse to keep her in control," said Kay Vang, an aunt.

LEAVING THE MARRIAGE

On Friday, Mai Kia Yang took her sister to get a restraining order against her husband.

On Sunday, about 1 or 2 p.m., Panhia Yang, Chue Lor, and relatives on both sides had met at her parents' house. Panhia Yang showed her husband the restraining order, Mai Kia Yang said. The families decided that if Panhia Yang wanted to leave the marriage, that's what she would do, Mai Kia Yang said.

After the meeting, the sisters talked by phone and Panhia Yang told her she was going to her apartment to get her belongings and her paycheck because she had bills to pay. She brought her brother, Kong Meng Lee, because she was scared about going, Mai Kia Yang said.

"I told her, 'You cannot go to his house by yourself because you got the restraining order for this reason,' " the sister said. "I told her to have an escort with her and she agreed to it."

Panhia Yang called the St. Paul police non-emergency line at the Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center at 3:38 p.m., requesting a police escort into her apartment, said Scott Williams, who oversees the ECC. She called back on the non-emergency line at 3:53 p.m., looking for an update, and a calltaker told her police would be sent when someone was available, Williams said.

Police were dispatched to the escort call at 4:28 p.m., but hadn't arrived when the 911 call came about the killings at 4:44 p.m., said Howie Padilla, St. Paul police spokesman. Police arrived within two minutes of the 911 call, he said.

Mai Kia Yang said she'd talked to her sister again at 4:36 p.m. and Panhia Yang said she was going to wait about 10 more minutes. It was the last time the sisters talked.

The wait time for a non-emergency call was not unusual, Williams said Tuesday.

"All the squads in that district were tied up on other calls until it was dispatched," he said. "That was the earliest a squad was available."

Police handle emergency calls before they can respond to non-emergency calls, Padilla said.

"I think ... what all of us would like to do is to try to find a way to keep this from happening," Padilla said, when asked in hindsight if the calls should have been handled differently. "We would all like that no one was harmed that day. It's my understanding that the ECC handled the non-emergency calls as they would have other calls of this nature. There is no way right now to go back and turn back time and bring these people back."

REMEMBERING THEIR LIVES

Kong Meng Lee was a junior at Hopkins High School, and had attended Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis before this school year.

Friends described him as animated and upbeat; a comedian who could take 30 minutes to tell a joke, and it wouldn't be boring for a second.

"The biggest thing about Kong Meng Lee was you never saw him frown, you never saw him cry. Not even on stage," said Susanne Dickison, the stage manager of the Patrick Henry drama department.

Last year, Kong Meng Lee played the Tin Man in "The Wiz," a show he shared with Dickison's daughter, Janice.

"I played Auntie Em, had to sing very first song in the show," Janice Dickison said. "I was having a very hard time, and was ready to quit. He told me, 'Big sister, you're beautiful. You got this role for a reason, you can do it.' Kong wouldn't let none of us quit. He highly believed in friendship and family."

Even after he left Patrick Henry, Kong Meng Lee went back to volunteer in the drama department as a stage hand.

Panhia Yang was also creative and artistic, her family said. She designed and sewed her own clothes, and liked drawing and singing. She worked at Teleflex Medical OEM in Plymouth, assembling medical devices.

"She was a great mother to her kids and was very protective of them," Mai Kia Yang said. "She was always smiling, very caring. I think she cared more about others than herself."

The family is struggling with the deaths of two siblings.

"It's very hard to believe what happened and accept it," said Mai Kia Yang. "We have questions that are unanswered. We're angry. We miss Panhia and Kong Meng and we want them back."